<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Closing Blues by StarWatcher</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24799672">Closing Blues</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarWatcher/pseuds/StarWatcher'>StarWatcher</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Sentinel</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Friendship, Friendship/Love, M/M, Slice of Life</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2004-09-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2004-09-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 00:35:00</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>802</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24799672</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarWatcher/pseuds/StarWatcher</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Blair rants; Jim is philosophical.  Or -- StarWatcher was feeling out of sorts, and let Blair do the ranting for her.  Barely-there slash.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Jim Ellison/Blair Sandburg</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Artifact Storage Room 3</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Closing Blues</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>   </p>
<hr/>
<hr/><p>   </p><p>Jim Ellison tossed another handful of popcorn into his mouth and decided that watching the closing ceremonies of the Olympic Games with Blair Sandburg was the only way to do it.  During every commercial break, his favorite anthropologist kept him entertained by expounding on the history of the customs being depicted, the dances, the food, and the costumes, hypothesized about the spectacle they might see in Beijing, compared it to what he remembered of previous closing ceremonies...  The man was in his element, and Jim just sat back and considered it part of the entertainment.  Cold beer, hot buttered popcorn, and an evening relaxing with his partner and best friend after a hard day -- The best things in life really were the simple moments, he reflected, and felt privileged to share these moments with Blair. </p><p>But all good things come to an end; he raised the remote control as the closing credits began to show on the screen, but was halted by a cry of outraged disbelief.  </p><p>“Wait a minute!  That’s <i>it</i>?  That’s fuckin’ ALL!?!”  Blair sounded as if the Jags had quit playing after the first basket.</p><p>“Yeah, Sandburg, that’s all.  You see those names scrolling down the screen?  I don’t know about Greek tradition or Chinese tradition, but in the great American tradition, that signifies the end of a show.  High time, too; we need to be at the station early tomorrow.”  </p><p>“But... but...”  Amazingly, he seemed at a loss for words.  It didn’t last long.  “I feel gypped!” he exploded.  “There should be more!”</p><p>“Sandburg, it’s eleven P.M.  They danced, they sang, they passed on the flame to the rest of the world and then blew it out... what more do you want?” </p><p>“Jim, I want all of it!  I want every word of every song they cut away from to interview an athlete.  I want every step of every dance that they gave us just a taste of before they cut away to commercial.  This is a world-wide celebration, and N.B-fuckin’-C squeezes its coverage into two and a half HOURS!?!  There’ve been years that I had to stay up till the wee small hours of the morning before the closing ceremonies finished!  This is just... just... it’s positively ob<i>scene</i>!”   </p><p>“But, Chief, I thought you <i>liked</i> the athlete interviews, and all the background commentary.  You wouldn’t want them cut out, would you?” </p><p>“Loved ‘em, and no, I wouldn’t want them cut.  I’m just sayin’, they could have shown the interviews, AND the complete dances, AND the complete songs...  This is Greece, man, they <i>invented</i> spectacle, and some pencil-pusher P-T-B sabotages the totality of it to make it fit in a predetermined time.  Greece oughta sue!” he finished bitterly.</p><p>Jim sighed; Sandburg’s expounding on the uneven coverage and exposure of the various events had been a constant, muttered background to the games for the past two weeks.  </p><p>“Sandburg, let it go.  You can’t change it, and it really won’t affect the course of history.  Ah-ah!”  He held up a cautionary finger as Blair took a deep breath to continue his rant.  “Wouldn’t Naomi be giving you the same advice?”     </p><p>The deep breath was expelled as Blair accepted his friend’s advice.  “Yeah, you’re right.  It just gripes me, man, when I know the good stuff was being presented, but high-powered jerks prevented me from seeing it.”</p><p>“Can’t be helped, Sandburg, unless you win the lottery and outbid N.B.C for the coverage.  Got an idea, though...”  He waited until Blair’s eyebrows signified his interest.  “We can go upstairs and celebrate the closing ceremonies much more satisfactorily.”  </p><p>“Jim, I swear, that’s becoming your answer for everything.”  He shook his head in mock disapproval.  “Sex doesn’t cure everything, you know.”</p><p>“Doesn’t it?”  He pasted a thoughtful look on his face.  “Well, maybe not, but it cures a helluva lot; can’t hurt to try this time, can it?” </p><p>Blair’s thoughtful look was considerably more convincing; he probably practiced in front of his classes.  “Maybe you’re right; I suppose it really can’t hurt to make the experiment.  So...”  The eyes he raised to Jim’s were now twinkling.  “Twenty-meter dash up the stairs?  Ready-set-go!”  </p><p>Ellison snorted and followed the enticing tush of his now and forever partner in all things as it scampered upward.  He figured it would only take him about thirty minutes to reduce his lover to a state where he couldn’t even say ‘Olympics’, let alone complain about the televised coverage.  A tough row to hoe, but someone had to do it, and he was just the man for the job.   <i>Gold medal performance, too,</i> he thought smugly, though in this case, there’d be a tie.  Both of them won at these games; he intended to keep it that way for the next fifty or sixty years.</p><p>   </p>
<hr/>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>
    <strong>~The End~</strong>
  </p>
</div><hr/><p>   </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I understand that other countries have <em>competent</em> coverage of the Olympic games.  In the U.S.A, coverage is handled exclusively by the heavy hand of N.B.C, whose P-T-B have decided that commercials are more important than performance content, and filler is more important than performance content from other countries.   I can remember -- back in the 70’s and 80’s -- when we’d see (for example) one of our gymnasts perform, then some other country’s gymnast perform while our team was waiting for their next turn.  Since at least the mid-90’s, that’s no longer true; if there’s a holdup that prevents our gymnast starting their routine right away, <em>God forbid</em> that coverage cut away to show other performances.  No, we have to watch the nervous gymnast pacing and waiting and watching for the ‘go’ signal while the commentators speculate on what the holdup is.  And yes, I’m remembering specific examples -- far too many in recent years.  I know it can be done; unless the Games are held in the U.S.A, events are recorded, and shown at a more convenient time. There’s absolutely no reason that they can’t show performance - score, performance - score - performance - score - performance - score - performance - score, a few commercials, then repeat over and over.  And those shown performances should be shared between all the countries competing in that venue; let us <em>see</em> the competition that the U.S athletes are trying to beat.  Any sports fan would be outraged if the cameras focused only on one team of the two playing; why is that not true of the Olympics?  And...  oh, there’s so much more rant I could do, but this is already longer than the story, and you’re probably not interested. &lt;g&gt;</p><p>*deep, calming breath*  These things grow without us noticing what has changed, but it really hit home at the closing ceremonies of the 2004 Summer Olympics in Greece.  It happened just as Blair complained -- <em>many</em> instances of songs, dances, and performances cut away for commercials.  Again, they could have scheduled a 4-hour block, played all the content intact, and used the “waiting between” time for commercials.  I was <em>bitterly</em> disappointed and felt cheated.  The next day, I let Blair express my outrage; it became a Sentinel Thursday response for the “Olympics” challenge.  Till now, it’s been buried on my LJ, so here it is, cast to a wider audience for the first time.</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>